City Council Meeting 11/1/2006

The Hoboken City Council meeting was dominated by two bombshell issues that were NOT on the agenda Mayor Roberts published on the city’s website. Yet again the public and the City Council were left in the dark until they walked into the Council Chambers. The first involved the ongoing 916 Garden automated garage debacle and the second involved the debacle that may be developing over the St. Mary Hospital takeover.

Part Two (St. Mary Hospital) recap to come this afternoon. NOW AVAILABLE!

11/1/2006:
Just wanted to shoot this out there early.

CLICK HERE to download a copy of today’s agenda. While it doesn’t seem like there are a ton of hot-topics on the list, today’s meeting will most certainly be a hot one.

The HOSPITAL FIASCO that was brought up last week will be addressed, and it’s important that AS MANY OF YOU AS POSSIBLE can come attend. The more that attend, the harder it will be for them to try and pass this by with as little scrutiny as they wish.

Here’s more regarding today’s meeting, but more make “sneak on” at the last minute since Maryor Roberts has been catching on and found a great way to push things through without anyone noticing.

All politics being local, and with one of Hoboken’s most famous residents on the ballot Tuesday, Hoboken’s City Council is looking to avoid controversy on the agenda of their meeting tonight.

LATE BUDGET: The fiscal year started in July. Now its November with still no budget adopted. That means the council is forced to consider more “Temporary Emergency Appropriations.” The ongoing public hearing on the proposed 2007 budget remains on the agenda, but it is unclear whether the City Council is ready to pull the trigger on the spending plan.

MASSIVE DRUG BILL: Because the ranks of the Hoboken City Workforce are bloated by patronage, the bill for Prescription Drugs we pay is huge. Tonight the City Council votes on a $3,850,000.00 contract with MaxorPlus to pay for prescriptions for City Employees.
UNION CONTRACTS: Three resolutions are on the agenda involving contracts, each entering into a “Memorandum of Agreement” with bargaining units. Apparently the city is ready to make deals with the Fire Officers Association, Uniformed Firefighters Association, and Municipal Supervisors Association.

It should be interesting to hear how big the raises will be for the Fire Officers. Our Fire Chief is already one of the highest paid in the nation. The Chief is the highest paid municipal employee in Hudson County, and makes more money than the New York City Fire Commissioner. He is also a successful real estate developer who wants to build a 14-story condo tower on land he owns in the Southwest Redevelopment Zone.

SALARY ORDINANCE REVISION: There is First Reading of a change to the Hoboken Salary Ordinance that establishes a legal salary range for the position of Chief Financial Officer. The minimum is listed at $50,000 and the maximum is $96,500.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to the bonus you get when David Roberts tries to illegally fire you on trumped up charges! Current CFO George DeStefano won a $500,000 settlement and his job back after Roberts tried to fire him. That’s after former CFO Michael Lenz was paid a $183,000 settlement after Roberts improperly canned him! That’s $683,000 taxpayer dollars paid in CFO settlements thanks to Dave Roberts.

PUBLIC COMMENT: The public is allowed time to speak on any issue they like at the end of each meeting. There is an effort underway to get people to sound the alarm about the shenanigans of the new “Hoboken Hospital Authority.” One of the authority’s first moves was to misrepresent St. Mary Hospital as “Hoboken University Medical Center”, ignoring the fact that it is not affiliated with any school. Par for the course.

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[quote comment=”5384″]It would be a wonderful thing to be able to vote into power someone who isn’t part of the old boys club and is a newcomer who actually might examine things without bias and without taking ‘perks’ from developers… [/quote]
That would be great. But one bit of advice – beware the “old boys club” in “newcomers” clothing. Enough said.

wgenese, I’m sure that you have seen your fair shair of corruption having grown up in this town… The sad thing is that it continues today…
It would be a wonderful thing to be able to vote into power someone who isn’t part of the old boys club and is a newcomer who actually might examine things without bias and without taking ‘perks’ from developers… We’ll see if the wind of change has taken enough people to actually influence the vote, or if it will be the old guard continuing on their pocket-lining ways…

In our lifetime?
It’s amazing the strangle hold that some of the powers that be have on Hoboken. My dad ran for a position when I was a kid and I remember he got threatning phone calls at home. F**ckin monkies. I can’t wait to see the old guard put out on their asses.

Not sure of the precise amount, but I’m guessing it’s somewhere between $185k and $200k plus perks such as a city car, etc. I’d have to do an OPRA search with the city clerk, which one citizen has already begun and has a pending lawsuit with the city regarding this due to withheld information.